SV Sunil still hopeful of recovering from knee injury in time for WC

India forwardSV Sunil can now dream of playing the forthcoming Men’s Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar in November-December.

A week ago, there were reports of the forward missing the most coveted trophy in the sport due to a knee injury.

But after he met sports medicine expert Dr Anant Joshi recently, hopes of him getting back into action and participate in the World Cup, are close to getting realized.

According to Dr Joshi, Sunil should get back to training in the next seven to 10 days. He also ruled out any surgery on the player’s knee, which would have ended his chances for the Bhubaneswar event.

“We met Sunil two days ago and we think he should be fit for training within the next 7-10 days. We had a look at him and while he did sustain a highgrade lateral collateral ligament injury, we came to a conclusion that he will not be requiring surgical intervention to correct the problem. We conducted afew tests (knee bending exercises and so on) and his healing progress is quite satisfactory at the moment.

“We are confident that he will be able to play within 15 days. For the time being, we have asked him to follow a complete two-week physiotherapy and we will know whether he is completely healed after that. There was not much swelling when we saw him,” Dr Joshi said.

The India team had received a huge blow when it was disclosed that the forward would require surgery after he tore a ligament on his left knee on October 4 while training at the Asian Champions Trophy preparatory camp in Bhubaneswar.

According to sources, Hockey India has given Sunil time to prove his match fitness in order to consider him for the World Cup squad.

“I don’t want to think too far ahead. It’s never easy for a player to return from an injury and play a major tournament. My main focus now is now to attain full fitness. I’ve been asked to prove my fitness in a month’s time. I’ll work really hard to pass it. Fingers crossed until then,” said Sunil after the latest development.

Currently, he is undergoing rehabilitation under physio Shrikant Iyengar in New Delhi.